The Mordaunt-Short Owners Thread

SimplySound

SimplySound

Kent Engineering & Fondry
Subscriber
A little surprised there wasn't this thread in the British Forum!

Not sure how many MS Owners are out there, but I've always thought a pair of MS737's would be something interesting to be able to hear. So I've started this thread for those owners of Late 60's-90's Mordaunt-Short Speakers to have a place to share their thoughts...

Type away! :thmbsp:
 
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Here's some interesting information for those wondering why I seemed to indicate that this thread is for only the late 60's to the 90's from the "current" MS Website....

Question
I have some rather old (pre 1999) Mordaunt Short speakers, where can I obtain spares, service or information for these?

Answer
All MS product built before 1998 were built by a different company to us. We regret that as these designs are not our intellectual property we have almost no information on the older designs but a UK company called Lockwood Audio can provide some spares and service for them.

MS designs of this vintage generally were 6 Ohms with a sensitivity in the high 80's and a power handling of about 100w RMS

For those looking for information on Mondraunt-Short, look no further than the Lockwood Audio Website!!!

Interesting to see they are the holders of the early Tannoy, Epos and TDL designs!
 
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Well in D&S I brought up a pair of MS737's that I found for sale. The discussion soon centered on the Signifers and where they were in the linage.

I believe the Signifers, Carnival, Festival and Pagents were introduced in the mid-70's and before then were models like the MS700, MS400 and the MS737. I don't have exact listing of the history so any information is great.

Here are some pictures of the MS737 that was based on KEF B200 Bass/Midrange drivers and that stunning Decca London Horn!!! I believe these were an evolution of the MS700 of the late-60' and early-70's and probably were introduced around 1974 or so.

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Theophile provided this picture of a pair of Signifers that probably date to the Late-70's.

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And I believe these are the early Pagent's from probably mid-70's.

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I haven't been able to find many pictures of the MS-700. It used the original Decca Kelly Horn and not sure what the other drivers were.

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Some more info on the MS737 from the "SoundFountain" for posterity...

MORDAUNT SHORT

The qualities of the Decca London Ribbon made it an interesting tweeter to be combined with other transducers. The engineers of Mordaunt Short designed a two-way system using Kef B200 units and named their systems MS 737 which was manufactured from approximately 1974 to 1976.

The cabinet measures 33"x17"x12" (84 x 43 x 30 cm.), and has a 1.75" plinth (4.5 cm). The weight of the cabinet was 62 lb. (about 28 kg.).

If the Decca London Ribbon is part of a 2-way system, it is important to choose the woofer and the volume of the woofer's cabinet (loading) in such a way as to bring about a firm and detailed mid band. Otherwise it is possible to have a midband that does not connect well to the London Ribbon. In that case the sound becomes rather weak, has not sufficient dynamics.

PASSIVE FILTERING

Power handling was 45 Watts. The crossover has 18 dB slopes for the Decca and 12 dB for the Kef units. The crossover frequency is 3500 Hz. The price was £216.76 in 1975. (Thanks to Colin Royle from Great Britain for sending the images of the MS 737 and of the diagram of the crossover network, and for the details.)

Mordaunt Short MS 737 and filter (below).

deccamordauntfilter.jpg
 
I have a pair of MS30's which are excellent!

I blew a tweeter in one but not to worry, Lockwood Audio to the rescue, new tweeter purchased at a very good price and I was up and going again - that was about 3 years ago.
 
I'll post pics of my pageants when I get back from vacation. Received the new caps from PE so will be recapping them and -- hopefully -- adding modern binding posts.
 
I have a couple of pairs, I think they were both made in the eighties. I've had the MS15s for around 20 years
MS15_2.JPG
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and the MS30s for about 15
P5250012_3.JPG
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I like them both and would also love to try some of the other models.
 
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A400 said:
I have a couple of pairs, I think they were both made in the eighties. I've had the MS15s for around 20 years...

and the MS30s for about 15...

I like them both and would also love to try some of the other models.
Click to expand...

Wow, those look nice... I like the paper cone woofer with rubber surround! Interesting! Thanks for posting those! :thmbsp:
 
MS35Ti's here since late 80's, a great speaker, except when the positec kicks in..........
MS15's for about the last 2 years, very pleasantly surprising for their size.
Not the best I've heard, but very very good.
 
rogerfederer said:
here is an album that shows my pageant series II. i recapped the x-over and changed the binding posts.

i'm trying them out in the HT system. see if the wifey likes them...:scratch2:
Click to expand...

I hope she likes them!!! Those look real nice.... bigger than I imagined. Nice job of the X-Over Re-cap by the way. How did they sound after that?
 
i like the sound. very detailed; not forward or muddy.

so far she doesn't seem to notice them (and we just watched a movie together sitting in front of them :scratch2:) -- actually good news. if she notices new speakers it is usually to complain they are too large...
 
kerrin,

those look very nice. must be same era as my pageants as they have similar styling -- that aluminum bar along the bottom of the baffle looks the same.

my wife finally did notice my pageants. i pointed out that they are smaller than the klh17s that i had in that slot; no argument.... she didn't notice whether they sounded better (i think they do!).

a couple of weeks ago i found some MS25s for sale on the local CL. very cheap as they had been damaged in a move. one grill is missing and some crunched corners. still sound very nice:thmbsp: they are my test speakers, for now.

if anyone has an extra MS25 grill i'd love one:yes:
 
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